“We are proud that we are Jews. We are proud that we answered our country’s call, and we are thankful that that country is England.”
This statement was made here by Lieutenant H. V. Marks, following a service at the city war memorial under the auspices of the Northeastern Jewish ex-Service Men’s Association. About 440 men—comprised of 270 members of the Jewish Association and 170 members of the British Legion—took part in what Lord Mayor Leadbitter described as one of the most impressive services he had attended.
Expressing gratitude for the civic recognition accorded the first parade of its kind in the north of England, P. L. Sherman, who had organized the parade, saw in it a desire to uphold the fundamental principle of British administration—a sense of equality.
“It is an action typically British coming from Britishers,” he said. “There are countries in the world today which could do no better than cast their eyes in this direction and follow the example of you, my Lord Mayor. All we ask—to quote a saying which emanated from a famous Jewish house—is to be ‘able to walk the world with dignity.’ “
In his speech the Lord Mayor referred to persecution of Jews and said no race has suffered greater privations nor been subjected to more jeers.
“At the same time there is no race that has been more versatile nor more adaptable through the ages,” he said. “In whatever country its people have lived, they have always been law abiding, but have never been absorbed.”
The Lord Mayor made mention of the fact that during the World War Jews fought on all fronts, “and it is sad to think you were at variance with brothers whom you loved. No other nation in the world had to do that. It shows how cosmopolitan and inextinguishable your race is.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
